Tuesday, October 13, 2009

{TWD} Allspice Crumb Muffins

The Tuesdays With Dorie assignment this week was Allspice Crumb Muffins, chosen by Kayte of Grandma's Kitchen Table. I "met" Kayte pretty early in my TWD days, and I liked her immediately. How could I not? She's fun, kind, and truly interested in everything and everyone around her. What's more, we have a lot in common - we're nearly the same age and share interests, including cooking and baking for our families.

When the October TWD recipes were announced, Kayte explained her choice to me: "I figured you could use them for Muffin of the Month for 'Mom!' Tell her I picked them out just for her!" That's the kind of friend that Kayte is. She remembered that I had a project of baking muffins this year for my mother, and she picked this recipe partly so that my baking would serve double duty: TWD participation and m.o.m. all rolled into one!

What's even more amazing is that my mom has a million food sensitivities and allergies, and Kayte managed to choose a muffin recipe that fits within my mother's narrow range of acceptable ingredients! For a long time I'd had my eye on the allspice muffin page in Dorie's book and I was hoping that somebody would choose the recipe soon so that I could bake it for my mom. Leave it to Kayte to read my mind!

n.o.e.'s notes:

- I made 1 1/2 recipe: 1 dozen for my mother and half dozen for us.

- It's always fun to use my spice grinder (coffee bean grinder in disguise) - I ground whole allspice berries. It turned out with some rather large bits, so I put some sugar in with allspice and it ground finer.

- In a bid to reduce the saturated fat in the muffins, I reduced the quantity of butter in half. for the other half butter, I used part oil and part plain yogurt.

- For the crumb mixture, I used King Arthur White Whole Wheat flour but I later wished that I'd remembered to use oat flour. The crumbs tasted great - the allspice took the buttery sugary goodness to a whole new level. I would have been just as happy to stop after the crumbs and serve them in a bowl with a spoon. By the way, for my fellow crumb-topping lovers, Sarah of Blue Ridge Baker just posted some sbrisolona cookies that are in effect entirely made of crumb topping.

- I substituted white whole wheat flour for half of the all-purpose flour in the muffins.

- The muffins rose nicely in the oven (well, they should, with 1 T baking powder!) and made lovely "muffin tops". They would have been very hard to get out of the pan - without ruining the crumb top - had I not used silicone muffin molds. As it was, even with pushing from below and loosening the best I could, large segments of the crumb tops spalled off while I was trying to release the muffins from the pan.

the verdict:

My husband sampled a muffin that was fairly fresh from the oven. His reaction: "Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm. That's good, good, good!" And he added, "those are unconscious." (That's high praise in case you were wondering)

I loved the allspice in these, especially in the crumb topping. The muffins are simple, straightforward, delicious, and seasonal. I can see myself making them often in the cool-weather months, when warm spiced baked goods really hit the spot.

It smelled like the Holidays to me... unfortunately didn't taste like them. What a great post! It sounds like this muffin was THE best choice for everyone - especially mom! Learning about allspice was worth this week's bake! Nicely done on all fronts Nancy!

I like the changes that you made for this one. I want to try these again with some sort of whole grain. I've had trouble with the tops spreading too much in the past, but this time I finally got them to cooperate.

Looks really great on that silver tray...very impressed with that silver tray treatment. Thank you for all the lovely things you said about me...very nice and sweet of you. Happy to hear MOM liked them and happy to hear J did, too, although I was fairly certain J would like them! Our tastes run very similar usually. Thanks for baking up a storm with me always!

I bet the freshly ground allspice was amazing. I used what I had in the pantry and I'm thinking it was past its prime. I'll have to get some fresh allspice and give it another go. My husband loved these too.

I actually copied your idea and subbed half of the butter in mine with yogurt. Didn't give you credit in my post, but there you have it! So fun that you were able to take care of two baking responsibilities with one muffin. I love it when that happens! They look perfect!

Your muffins look fantastic, and how cool that you didn't have to make any adjustments for your mom's food sensitivities. I appreciated your suggestions on the P&Q section. I pretty much always use yogurt, but I don't remember to use ww flour as much as I should.

You know, I almost thought that 1 tbsp of baking powder was a typo! Glad I didn't try to "fix" anything! I was so stunned by the way I behaved around these muffins. I would've eaten them all ASAP, but I did manage a smidgen of self control. Fabulous job, Nancy.